Looking forward to new chapter in Paxton

By Christine Smith

Thursday

Feb 6, 2014 at 12:01 AM

There was bustling activity taking place in Paxton's Richard's Memorial Library on Saturday, with almost no heed paid to the removed ceiling tiles and wall panels that clearly exposed the progress being made on the wiring for the alarm system in the building.

Library visitors seemed to forget that even the quiet presence of Paxton firefighter Peter Conte, who has been stationed in the library as a protection for the third Saturday in a row and who has also been there some Tuesday nights over the past several weeks, meant that the fire alarm system in the building has yet to be completed.

Children's Librarian Lois Shorten expressed excitement on Saturday at the near completion of the alarm system. Library Trustees had expressed hope during their meeting last week that the library would be open by Tuesday, but that will not be, as engineers from Simplex Corporation are not scheduled to be on site to finish the programming for the wiring system until Wednesday, Feb. 12 of this week.

Patrons went about their business Saturday, having only two hours to do so, from noon until 2 pm. The library has been open on severely reduced hours and only with a firefighter on hand, since it was discovered almost a month ago that the wiring for the fire alarm system had been incorrectly done and had to be re-worked. The discovery was only made during the installation of an elevator, which revealed that many of the wires had been left unconnected to the control box.

As a result, construction on the elevator continued, but patrons were not allowed in the building as library officials scrambled to get an electrician to work on the wiring for the alarm system. All public events were canceled as well. They will be rescheduled after the library officially reopens with a full schedule.

At present, patrons are only allowed in the building Saturdays, as well as Tuesday from 5-7 p.m. and Wednesday from 10 a.m to noon.

Shorten said the wiring is basically finished, leaving just the heat and smoke detectors, visual and audio alarms, and the carbon-monoxide units to be hooked up and mounted and the programming on the control box to be completed. Once the work is finished, Library Trustees had recently noted that approval is needed from the town's electrical inspector and the fire department to obtain a new occupancy permit and resume normal operations at the library.

According to Head Librarian Deb Bailey, "most people have been very understanding and empathetic" regarding the problem, but that there have also been some who have been "nasty."

Shorten expressed dismay at being in the library without patrons on the days when the library is closed to the public. She said she misses them, but that hopefully the library will be able to return to normal soon.

In the midst of the wiring problems, the mechanical work on the elevator is completed, although some of the cosmetic work has been less than satisfactory to the Library Trustees. Once the library gets its OK on the alarm system and receives its occupancy permit, the lift will provide access for transporting books and those with physical disabilities between levels.